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Ragout Beef

A slow‑cooked beef ragout with tomatoes, onions, cloves, cinnamon, and pork fat, finished with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ragout Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a pot with a tight cover, combine chopped tomatoes, onions, cloves, cinnamon, and whole black pepper.

  3. Cut gashes in the beef and stuff them with the fat salt pork.

  4. Place the beef on top of the vegetable mixture.

Braise

  1. Pour vinegar and water over the beef.

  2. Cover tightly and bake for 4-5 hours, salting to taste halfway through.

Finish the gravy

  1. Once done, remove the beef and strain the gravy through a colander.

  2. Thicken the gravy with flour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through long, slow braising.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, helping build the body of the gravy.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and body to the braising liquid as they soften.
Fat salt pork
Adds richness and fat that keeps the lean beef moist during baking.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the flavor and helps break down the meat.
Flour
Thickens the strained gravy so it becomes a smooth, cohesive sauce.

The step that matters

Covering tightly for the long bake. A tight cover traps steam so the braising liquid cannot evaporate away over 4-5 hours. Keeping the liquid in contact with the beef lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin, producing tender meat and a flavorful gravy.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, onion, clove, pepper, pork, vinegar):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, onion, clove, pepper, pork, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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